Opec won’t cut crude oil output

South Sudan's Minister for Petroleum and Mining Stephen Dhieu Dau (left) prepares to press the button, which will resume oil production in Paloch in South Sudan's Upper Nile state. Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) will not cut oil production even if the price drops to $20 a barrel, and it is unfair to expect the cartel to reduce output if non-members do not, Saudi Arabia said. PHOTO | HANNAH MCNEISH |  AFP

In Summary

• In unusually detailed comments, Naimi defended a decision by Opec, whose lead producer is Saudi Arabia, last month to maintain a production ceiling of 30 million barrels per day.
• The kingdom pumps about 9.6 million barrels per day but Naimi said it is “crooked logic” to expect his country to cut and then lose business to other major producers outside Opec.

By AFP
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RIYADH

Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) will not cut oil production even if the price drops to $20 a barrel, and it is unfair to expect the cartel to reduce output if non-members do not, Saudi Arabia said.

“Whether it goes down to $20 a barrel, $40, $50, $60, it is irrelevant,” the kingdom’s Oil minister Ali al-Naimi said in an interview with the Middle East Economic Survey, an industry weekly.

In unusually detailed comments, Naimi defended a decision by Opec, whose lead producer is Saudi Arabia, last month to maintain a production ceiling of 30 million barrels per day.

The decision sent global crude prices tumbling, worsening a price drop that has seen them fall by around 50 per cent since June.

BALANCING DEMAND

Saudi Arabia has traditionally acted to balance demand and supply in the global oil market because it is the only country with substantial spare production capacity, according to the International Monetary Fund.

The kingdom pumps about 9.6 million barrels per day but Naimi said it is “crooked logic” to expect his country to cut and then lose business to other major producers outside Opec.

The increasingly competitive global oil market has seen daily United States oil output rise by more than 40 per cent since 2006, but at a production cost which can be three or four times that of extracting Middle Eastern oil.

“Is it reasonable for a highly efficient producer to reduce output, while the producer of poor efficiency continues to produce?” Naimi asked during the interview conducted with MEES on Sunday.

“If I reduce, what happens to my market share? The price will go up and the Russians, the Brazilians, US shale oil producers will take my share.